Flanagan is no stranger to controversy. In 2010, he advocated for the assassination of Julian Assange. In 2013 he was removed from his teaching post and fired as commentator for the CBC and The Globe and Mail, after comments he made regarding child pornography went viral.

As part of its conversation series with the Globe and Mail, Concordia hosted a talk on “Digital Life, Digital Identity” with Vancouver-based science fiction author William Gibson and Communications Professor Fenwick McKelvey on Jan. 6.